Racing in Saratoga Springs

It’s Tuesday!
I’m now on the official end of work countdown: 4  days left  about a half day vacation to squeeze in! It also means that I have less than two weeks to pack up my apartment.

Gulp.

But I put all that aside this past weekend and hit the road to go visit Alicia and Heather in Saratoga Springs! I met these two lovely ladies at HLS12 where we quickly became fast friends. These girls are awesome: energetic, positive, supportive, funny, and intelligent.

 Alicia knows how to get my attention: red hair and a wink. Sold.

Yes, I know this picture is blurry, but I love it!

I think one of the hardest parts about HLS is meeting great people and not knowing when you will be seeing them face to face again so when Alicia mentioned going down for a visit, I jumped right on it.

I didn’t take many pictures this weekend; I was more focused on having a great time with these two girls and another lovely lady they introduced me to, Emily. After I arrived on Saturday, Alicia and I headed to pick up Heather and then we hit up Trader Joe’s for some grocery shopping fun. Emily met us there and we immediately bonded over the chocolate (I didn’t buy any. Stupid allergy.)

We dropped things off at Alicia’s and then headed to downtown Saratoga to enjoy a free beverage courtesy of the Saratoga Palio 5k and half-marathon race! That’s right: I didn’t just visit friends in Saratoga, I ran a 5k race with Heather and Alicia!

A 5k race that almost didn’t happen because after we enjoy our drink (hard cider), we headed to an Italian restaurant where we did what any reasonable person would do the night before a 5k race: eat a lot of carbs. We had bread, cheese stuffed focaccia bread, and pasta. I had angel hair with shrimp in tomato sauce. Again, some more things I wasn’t supposed to eat, but it was a special occasion! We were so full and tired by the time we finished dinner that we discussed not running the race so we could sleep in.

The four of us had a slumber party at Alicia’s (and by slumber party I mean we chatted for awhile and then all fell asleep just after midnight. We can’t slumber party like we used to). In the morning we got up and knew we were running; how could we not?!

(source)

I finished in a time of 30:36, so didn’t do a PR, but I’m completely fine with that. I was running for fun and didn’t really train for time at all; just to finish. I ran at a comfortable pace through most of the race and then I sprinted the last 500 m or so. Alicia and Heather finished shortly after me and after we celebrated with some water and a banana for me, we headed to Target!

Yes, we wandered around Target wearing our racing clothes and bibs. One guy even stopped me to ask about the race and congratulate me – so cool!

We picked up some Pumpkin ice cream on the way back to Alicia’s at Stewart’s and I could have easily downed the entire container all on my own. That stuff is good! To accompany the ice cream I made Alicia and Heather a variation of poutine!

Neither of them had tried poutine before, so I brought some poutine gravy down with me and then picked up some frozen sweet potatoes and shredded cheese.

I think I ate most of it but Heather and Alicia enjoyed it as well.

We played with Buddy (full name: Butternut Squashington), Alicia’s dog, for awhile before I had to get back in the car and make the long, lonesome drive back to Ottawa. Tear.

And yes, Buddy is wearing an airplane with a pilot on him. Hallowe’en costume!

I miss those girls (and Buddy) something stupid. They rock. The greatest blends (blog friend) a girl can have.